Among the many engravings on display in the
museum is one entitled “Gesu Bambino,” the Italian name for the baby
Jesus. As we prepare to celebrate
Christmas, we will take a look at the engraving, its artist and dealer, and how
it came to be owned by the Glessners.

On November 27, 1880, Frances Glessner noted in
her journal:

“French and literature classes in the
afternoon. Mr. Scott over to spend
Sunday and look at engravings sent up by Mr. Keppel’s – Roullier. We selected twenty one pictures.”

Frederick
Keppel (1845-1912) appears to have been the exclusive dealer through whom the
Glessners purchased their numerous engravings, which numbered nearly 100 by the
time of John Glessner’s death in 1936. Keppel
was born in Ireland in 1845, emigrated to Canada, and later moved to New York
to become a bookseller. In 1870, he
inadvertently became the first dealer in fine etchings and engravings in North
America after acquiring some prints from a disgruntled London print seller who
wanted to return to England and needed to dispose of the prints from his New
York shop. Keppel was educated by
leading print collectors of the day, including the greatest collector at that
time, James L. Claghorn, and was also an intimate friend of James McNeill
Whistler. He travelled regularly to
Europe to buy prints and engravings and was the senior member of the art
importing firm of Frederick Keppel & Co. with offices in New York and
London. He also lectured widely and
wrote regularly for newspapers and magazines.
(Keppel presented the Glessners with a signed reprint of his important
article, The Golden Age of Engraving,
in 1878). He died in 1912 at which time
his firm donated collections of prints to several museums in his memory to
encourage a better understanding of prints and engravings.

Although
Keppel did not maintain an office in Chicago, he frequently exhibited here, at
the store of Jansen, McClurg & Co., located at the northeast corner of
State and Madison. His representative,
Albert Roullier, eventually went into business for himself and established his
own store in Chicago around 1900.

An
article in the Chicago Tribune dated
November 21, 1880 confirms that Keppel was exhibiting in Chicago at the time
the Glessners viewed and purchased their twenty one engravings:

“Next
week there will be exhibited at Jansen, McClurg & Co.’s, the Keppel
collection of the line engravings, composed of specimens of the works of
Morghen, Toschi, Longhi, and other masters of the Italian school, the most of
them being in the early state, and once the property of Antonio Perfetti, the
pupil of Morghen. Another feature of the
exhibition will be the greater portion of the fine engravings which adorned the
gallery of ex-Queen Christine of Spain, who died two years ago. This is particularly rich in specimens of the
renowned engravers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – Nanteuil,
Edelinck, Massou, Drevet, Willie, Bervic, Strange, and Sharp.”

A
series of fourteen receipts in the museum archives indicate that the Glessners
were purchasing from Keppel as early as 1877 and as late as 1892. The receipt for their purchase in November
1880 shows that they paid $3.75 for their copy of the Gesu Bambino. It was the least expensive of the twenty one
engravings, for which they paid a total of $596.50. The receipt also shows pieces by Edelinck and
Drevet, possibly those referenced in the
Tribune article as being from the collection of Queen Christine of
Spain.

Mauro Gandolfi, Self portrait, 1785

The
Gesu Bambino engraving was executed by Mauro Gandolfi, an Italian painter and
engraver of the Bolognese school. Based on an original artwork by Giovanni Zecchi, it
shows the baby Jesus lying in a manger with outspread arms and beams of light
illuminating from the clouds above. Born
in 1764, Gandolfi came from a family of artists – his father was the painter
Gaetano Gandolfi, and his six younger brothers were all painters as well. In 1794, he was made a professor at the
Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and by the early 1800s he was focusing on
engraving. In 1801, he moved to Paris
and engraved the works at the French museums.
He later returned to Italy to continue his work as an engraver. He traveled to the United States in 1816 and
published a series of illustrations depicting New York City and
Philadelphia. Gandolfi died in Bologna
in 1834.

The
exact date that the engraving in the Glessner collection was made is not
known. John Glessner presented it to his
wife as a Christmas gift, and added the penciled notation “With Christmas
compliments 1880, J. J. Glessner” in the lower right hand corner.

Isaac Scott designed an elegant wood frame
for the piece with simple reeded sides featuring small stylized flowers at each
corner, each one of different design. A
wide beveled gold leafed inner frame surrounds the print itself; a broader
velvet covered mat outside the glass fills the area between the inner and outer
frames.

Today
the print hangs on the west wall of the hallway leading to Fanny’s
bedroom.